We saw a really cool video in Science today! As you know, we are starting our Space unit and for fun, I had found a really cool video that played the sounds of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.
Now, I know what you are saying. You’re shaking your head in sadness, thinking that Poor Mr.H has finally lost his marbles and thinks that we can hear sounds in space, when everyone knows that you can not hear sounds in space. There’s no air and sound needs air to travel through.
Well, dear children and parents, you are right and wrong. While you are right in that there is no sound in space due to the lack of air, the satellite that recorded the sounds from Jupiter actually recorded the electro-magnetic field that was hitting the satellite as it passed by. The scientists then converted those signals to sound. And that is what the video is playing. So you are actually listening to the sound that a planet 100’s of thousands of miles away is making right now!
Well, I guess the math video displayed well but the sound was very quiet and hard to hear. When I get a better mike, I will maybe redo the video so that you can hear it better. One thing to mention though, the video just describes multiplication without regrouping which means we are not “carrying”. Carrying will come next. We still had some students today who were having some difficulties with the multiplication so we will be spending lots more time on this concept.
Catching up on our Poetry Tournament, so far our winners are: April Rain Song, Why?, Me and Yesterday. Here are the four latest contestants reading their poems.
Speaking of poetry, here is another poem to add to our Daily Poem of the Day list:
Rock n Roll Dad
by
Jaime Adoff
Rock n Roll Dad cooks
in the kitchen
radio blasts
always on ten!!
It’s so LOUD, I have to shout,
“WHEN ARE WE GOING TO EAT!?”
Dad yells,
“SOOOOOON!”
Dancing past me with his spoon.
Pots shake,
pans vibrate.
Mom screams:
“It’s an earthquake!”
“What?” Dad yells back.
I roll my eyes.
Mom shakes her head.
Rock n Roll Dad is a little deaf.
“A lot.” Mom says.
“Too many years playing drums.” Rock n Roll Dad shouts, twirling his sticks and stirring the sauce.
“Can I go to the club with you tonight?” I ask Dad.
“You’re not old enough yet.” He answers back.
“I want to go. I’m eight years old. I’m old enough to Rock n Roll.”
. . . One day I’m gonna play the drums too.
My hands will fly so fast
my sticks will break the speed of sound.
I’ll be the best drummer in town.
I play the plates with my carrot stick-sticks.
Splashing salsa cymbals with my rock n roll chips . . .
For science today, students were comparing the sizes of different objects in space including the planets, moons and asteriods. Students had a number of images and had to categorize them according to 5 types: Smaller than a school, bigger than a school but smaller than the moon, bigger than the moon but smaller than Earth, Smaller Than the Sun but bigger than Earth and, finally, bigger than the Sun. Students were quite surprised to find that some objects were bigger than they thought and that some objects were a lot smaller than they thought. It was very interesting. I also found a video, courtesy of Mr. Munro that nicely shows the sizes of objects in space and gives a little perspective both things we ahve talked about in Science.
We had a little disappointment today in regards to our tomatoes. When I came in this morning, a few of the seedlings had been pulled from the soil. I guess there had a been a group in the evening and some children had been using the other side of the room. We have fixed things up as best as we could and are continuing on with the experiment. None of the students know which were pulled out as I replaced them with extras I had. However, the students were very disappointed as was I. I have been very pleased to see our curious and excited the children have been to see their plants grow and this will defineatly be a project I will do again. We are almost ready to send in our results. Once our results are in, they will notify us as to which seeds were which. Very exciting!!!!
Don’t forget about the Spelling Bee next week. Students will be doing the in-class Bee on Tuesday. We have the field trip on Wednesday, the school Spelling Bee on Thursday. Another busy week ahead!
Students earned their party after gaining their 75th star today. They were able to hold on to it to the end of the day and thus, we will be having our party on Friday. I have asked the students to bring something if they are able to. It can be anything as long as their is enough for the class. For example, if someone could donate some juice boxes, we would need 25 of them for the entire class (or 28 if you wanted to include myself, Ms. Wiebe and Mrs. Davies).
Students will still be having their Spelling Test, Memory Verse and Mad Minutes on Friday. For the Mad Minutes, we will be focusing on the basic facts from the 5 times tables to the 10 times tables. I have noticed that many of the students are weak in these basic facts. If you could work on these with them, that would be great.
Madeline got to solve our Math Problem of the Day today. Using Art.com artpad, she has beautifully illustrated her solution to the problem. You can see the question and the result below.
We had a great time in Science today. For the last couple of days, students have been studying five basic concepts:
The Earth is very large
Some objects in the sky, such as the Sun, the Moon, Stars and Planets are very large.
The Moon is very large but not as large as the Earth.
The Sun is super huge compared to the Earth.
The Sun is a star. Compared to other stars it is medium sized.
Today, students measured a scale model of the Sun. After having learned that the diameter of the Earth is approx. 15,000 km and that the Moon is approx. 6,000 km in diameter, the students were amazed to learn that the Sun is approx. 1,210,000 km in diameter!!
We also got a great chance to see a Bill Nye video. Here is one of the segments we watched. I think this has an amazing illustration of the distances of the planets from each other.
Pray in the spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18
Just a quick blog entry today. I have been having lots of fun with the WWTelescope. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, please get it as soon as possible! It is a great program and those of the students that have downloaded it, many of them are already creating their own slideshows and presentations using the images available. I’m hoping that Microsoft will add some music soon so I don’t have to look for free, usable music.
It was a busy day and it was made harder by the beautiful weather outside. We did get to go out and play some kickball which helped (and I think I got a sunburn because of it). Students had a math test today which was fairly long due to the fact that they also had a review test to go along with it. Tomorrow, students will have their spelling test. We have moved the memory verses to Tuesday as I will not be in the class on Friday. The students will actually have a sub tomorrow even though I will still be in the building. Tomorrow is the Spelling Bee and I will be busy helping out with that event.
Have a great night. I think I will go and get a bowl of ice cream!!!!
Microsoft’s Google Sky competitor, dubbed WorldWide Telescope, is almost ready for release, according to Bill Gates.
Google Sky may be widely credited with pushing stargazing software beyond astronomy geeks and into the mainstream, but Microsoft hopes to improve on Google’s formula with its own free celestial application, WorldWide Telescope. Bill Gates spoke more about the upcoming release and gave a more definite release date at a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday.
According to PCWorld, Gates told audiences that Google Sky would launch at the end of May, staying within the spring 2008 time period promised on Microsoft’s prelaunch page. In his address, Gates was especially proud of the Microsoft Visual Experience Engine that will power WW Telescope, compiling terabytes worth of data into a seamless view of the night sky. “This is taking data that’s very complex, gathered over many years from many telescopes, and making it accessible,” he said.
Gates was in Indonesia for the Government Leader Forum – Asia, where he also announced a handful of education programs Microsoft would participate in to help deliver technology and education to those in less developed countries.
Here is a nice video from Bill Nye the Science Guy. I have always enjoyed him and he gives a great explanation as to why Pluto should not be considered a planet anymore.
It was a busy day and it was made harder by the beautiful weather outside. We did get to go out and play some kickball which helped (and I think I got a sunburn because of it). Students had a math test today which was fairly long due to the fact that they also had a review test to go along with it. Tomorrow, students will have their spelling test. We have moved the memory verses to Tuesday as I will not be in the class on Friday. The students will actually have a sub tomorrow even though I will still be in the building. Tomorrow is the Spelling Bee and I will be busy helping out with that event.